Friday, 7 October 2016

First Sentence Friday - The White Feather Ch 7

First Sentence Friday - The White Feather Chapter 7His future bride was not the only lady in his life he needed to keep happy.

Here's a brief word about Church of England Special Licenses. It seems that nearly every Regency Romance novel features Our Hero fetching a special license for marriage.

In reality, they were rather rare. In novels, it seems that Special Licenses were more a way to get married quickly--say, that day.

Historically, when getting married in the Church of England, There were three ways of going about it:

1. Calling the Banns: this was the cheapest (free) and easiest way. In your parish of residence, announcements of your forthcoming marriage were made each Sunday for three weeks. If nobody objected, you and your betrothed could get married.

2. Common License: issued by an bishop, archbishop or archdeacon, a common license waived the three-week bann-calling period. However, you could only get married in the jurisdiction of the clergy who issued it. All licenses cost money. Sometimes a couple got a license for no other reason than a financial status symbol.

3. Special License: these could only be issued by the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but allowed the wedding to take place in any parish.

How do you think James went about it?
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